A fortified earthen village stacked up a hillside above the Ounila river, its towers crenellated and its walls patterned with the raised geometry that only clay allows. It is the best-preserved ksar on the Saharan side of the Atlas, and for fifty years the film industry's favourite backdrop — from Gladiator to Game of Thrones — because no set designer can fake it. Wade the stream and climb to the granary on the summit.